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BOA to Provide ₦3.6b Facility for Farm Mechanisation

Posted by Finintell on Monday, 17 June 2013

In a bid to increase agricultural production in the country, the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for a ₦3.6 billion facility for farm mechanisation programme in the country.

BOA’s Managing Director, Dr. Mohammed Santuraki, at the weekend in Kaduna, said that the partnership with the Ministry would further promote government’s transformation agenda for the agricultural sector, adding that the agricultural mechanisation programme was critical to the real sector’s revival scheme.

Dr. Santuraki said, “Any time we discuss agriculture, the first thing we say is that 60% of our people are involved in agriculture, which is shameful. We have over 60% of our workforce involved in agriculture and yet we import over $12 billion (₦1.95 trillion) worth of food every year. In America, only 2% are involved in agriculture and they are net exporters of food.”

He said Nigeria need to have less people involved in agriculture so that others can do other businesses that are also of economic importance.